Technologies for Cost-Effective udWDM-PONs

New technologies for ultradense WDM-PON (udWDM-PON), enabled by coherent techniques and low-cost devices, are developed for an efficient utilization of the optical spectrum, revealing that the Wavelength-to-the-User concept can be feasible. In this paper, an udWDM-PON with only 6.25-GHz channel spacing is implemented with conventional DFB lasers, for a splitter-based PON infrastructure with 256 ONUs. The results of the analysis of udWDM access network architecture with respect to their associated complexity, cost, and migration scenarios, exhibit the potential for higher aggregate throughput, higher split ratios, and node consolidation, when compared to competing technologies.